dressed in blue denim dungarees, a grey t shirt and cream, zip upjacket, ruth neave sat emotionless next to a woman police officer throughout. the way i treated him was nothing, the way it was portrayed in the paper. i wasn t the greatest mother in the world, but i want the worst. and the police decided to go into the neglect and cruelty and get all the ridiculous statements from people who wanted to be in the news. you know, i m not going to be accused of hanging my son over a bridge or choking him half to death or starving him or beating him up or punching him because it s all all wrong. things were to get much worse for ruth. a small crowd gathered outside peterborough magistrates court, hoping to catch a glimpse of ruth neave~ but police had taken her there
new and compelling evidence. he s the one, he and his team solved this murder, not me. ijust kept a promise. in one case, police records showed that ruth was spotted half a mile from her home the night rikki disappeared. in actual fact, she was at home at that time, being interviewed by three officers. ruth neave is pleased that we re reopening the investigation - because she wants justice for her son, which is fair, | i and i think any mother in those i circumstances would be the same. but i think it s fair to say as well, from our own perspective, we have to be very, very careful| about, you know, when and how and the reasons to open this investigation. - and from our own mind, subjectively, we are satisfied based on the information that we ve i reviewed and what we ve seen, that there are fresh grounds to open this investigation. l it s never going to be over. not for me, because somebody has took a life of a little boy
of killing other children. the way was portrayed in the paper, i wasn t the greatest mother in the world but i wasn t worst. things became much worse. last night she was charged with murdering her son. detectives questioned her for hours. they treated me like nothing on earth. i get panic attacks and anxiety. ruth neave has been found not guilty. two questions need to be asked, who killed rikki and could his death have been prevented 7 27 years after the murder, a breakthrough. the evidence was always there. ijust didn t think it was ever fair, why my child? when rikki died, i died.
three hours earlier. last night, she was charged with murdering her son. detectives had questioned her for several hours. that october, ruth neave went on trial, the prosecution claiming she murdered her son as part of a black magic ritual. that kind of stuff tends to stick out in my mind and it s like a trigger. i get panic attacks, i get anxiety. it s awful. i can never get away from it, really, because there s such awful times. after four weeks of evidence, a verdict was reached. the foreman of the jury said they had decided unanimously ruth neave was not guilty of murder, she was not guilty of manslaughter. she broke down and wept. there were gasps of disbelief from the public gallery. how do you feel about that original police investigation? revulsion, to be honest. treat me like. they treat me like nothing on earth. horrible people, they were.
i just can t thank you enough for what you ve done for me. justice for rikki now turns into justice for ruth and the fight to clear her name. while she pleaded guilty to neglecting her children, she maintains most of the claims against her were false. is there anything cambridgeshire police could do now? yeah, apologise. apologises for making my life hell. living under a cloud. everybody thinking i murdered my son. there s nothing left apart from apology. i don t like saying it to gary, but i go to gary to know if it alive. officer won t be here. i m saying. if rikki was alive, you know, he would be a strapping lad and i d have all the grandkids and all the kids around me. and, you know, so i always wanted a big family. i had four kids.